Apple’s Santa Siri ad: The most effective ad of the holiday season

Apple’s Siri ad featuring Santa Claus was 2011’s most effective holiday advertisement according to viewer reaction as measured by Ace Metrix, a TV ad analysis firm. The Apple spot also exemplified a bigger trend this year: according to Ace Metrix, “Santa sells.”

Ace Metrix scores ads based on perceived effectiveness by a selection of randomly selected viewers, which it says are “representative of the U.S. TV viewing audience.” Apple’s Siri ad, which you can see below, scored a 652 overall out of a total possible 950 points, which tallied from respondent scores on criteria such as relevance, persuasion, watchability, information, etc. Apple’s 652 was 8 percent higher than the average score for ads in the same tech-oriented category.

Other ads that did well include spots from Pillsbury, Coca-Cola, Nintendo and Duracell. Santa was featured in 35 new ads during the holiday 2011 season, including Apple’s, and each of those campaigns performed above their category average.